Review: BlackBerry Storm

RIM's first touch-screen BlackBerry finally hits the market. Find out if RIM's Storm lives up to the hype.

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Research In Motion has finally been caught in the whirlwind mobile phone fad of the day and conjured up a Storm of its own to combat the headwinds. The Storm is the first BlackBerry to use a touch screen for input. RIM has done some really innovative things with the Storm, but sticks to its roots with the business-friendly underpinnings that anchor the Storm. If you're a business user who needs a BlackBerry for its tight integration with business software and services, but are longing for something a little more nontraditional than the usual BlackBerry QWERTY slab phone, the Storm could be the phone for you.

I was so excited to get this new phone and now all I want to do is throw it against the wall. I'm going to give it a few more days just to make sure carnage isn't the answer.The phone itself looks cool, it has cool applications, a clean screen....looks cool...oh wait I already said that. The touch screen is TERRIBLE! It's almost impossible to hit just one key on a menu or keyboard. I've tried different keyboards, landscape, portrait etc. and each one will not register the key I want it to. I can't even get through the setup process because the keys won't register correctly. I don't have big fingers so I thought I'd be ok. I even tried using my finegr nails - I've become so adpet at typing on my older blackberry - to no avail. Lik...(continues)

keeping it a few days is a good idea. brand new phones have a few bugs, especially in a touch screen that RIM rushed to try to keep up with the seemingly unlimited excalation of iphone popularity. theres always software updates within your 30 day bu...(continues)

had to go to Apple this morning to get my phone checked. Since I was already at the mall I figured I would â€œBattle the Crowdsâ€ to see Verizonâ€™s launch of the Blackberry Storm. It looks like they were all ready for the crowds too (With line barriers setup in front of the store)

I guess all their customers are at at&t stores buying iPhones!!!

They actually thought people would line up for it lol, sorry its no iphone haha

For everyone Worried/Complaining about LAG and DELAYS on the Storm should know

you should know that the review and launch units we launched with an older software version, 4.7.0.65 at the last minute due to the discovery of a security issue in RIM's already created and smooth working OS v 4.7.0.82.

That OS is the latest and was already working with much faster and smoother performance. RIM has said a free OTA software update (presumably the secure corrected 4.7.0.82) which should fix the issue.

Source:the Verizon Storm was set to launch with an OS higher than 4.7.0.65. The boxes handed out at the Verizon media event on Tuesday in NYC (where all those reviewers picked theirs up) actually have stickers on them that show 4.7.0.82. Yet the devices were actually loaded with the .65 OS. Did you purchase a Storm toda...(continues)

Just wanted to let everyone know that they are shipping the phone already. I went to the Verizon store on release day to get one, of course they were out of units, told me they only received 15 and sold out quickly. So I went ahead and told them to order me one. They told me that it would most likely ship on Tuesday 11/25. Because the store's systems were all down, the rep told me he could call me later to get my credit card info. When he called later that night, he told me that I was guaranteed to have the phone by December 5th, which I wasn't too happy to hear after what they told me in the store earlier. I was happy to get home from work tonight to find an email from Verizon saying that my phone shipped today, and the estimated delivery d...(continues)

i been telling everyone i play with this phone since last month this phone its so bad the dare is better the touchscreen is a joke the phone slower the my turtle and to load a web page sit down and wait ,lol poor verizon keep looking stupid tryng to beat the iphone and they shipped like 400 phone to the entire nyc AND!!!! if you order the phone now you get it by dect 5 great verizon YOU STUPID IDIOT SPEND 200 MILLION DOLLARS MARKETING AND DONT HAVE ENOUGHT PHONE AND THEY TRASH!!!!!

Had the iphone (without update 2.2). Switched because I wanted better service quality, MMS, Video etc etc. I am ready to bring this back today! Man, after the iphone there is no phone. I would rather have a Dare. I want Verizon, especially with my 21% discount for AAA, but I can't take it. The one button click is annoying. More annoying is their auto correct spelling that is hard to work around unlike Apples. Also, the smart type? What is smart about it? I can't stand the multiple clicks to get to the letter I want unless it is in landscape mode. Am I missing something? I love the camera and flash. At least I tried... PS - I am a quick learner too.

I am not bashing people who got one of these phones. But I will say I am jelous of you who could sell them to people we didn't even get ours to sell yet. Just today I had someone who wanted to buy 2 of them grrr . But as far as lag or any other issues it like everything else that gets released. Example X360, WII and PS3 they all had there issues when the came out. So phones makers have the same issue. Give it 6 months and I bet this phone will make you all drool

I had high hopes but now all I can hope is that RIM fixes this seriously deficient phone.

There are things I like. I like how the click screen prevents me from accidently hitting links when enlarging wep pages. I love the screen transitions. I love the big colorful screen. I even like the new menus.

The problem is that the phone is just not up to par when it comes to software and I do not think the click screen will hold up.

The software is slow, buggy, and unpredictable. If I have to see that darn spinning clock anymore I am going to throw this thing out the window. It also freezes up ever hour or so.

The screen itself is clever but not that great for use. It slows my typing down considerably and is already getting lint lodges ...(continues)

The review of this phone shows you what your getting. We are reviewing the phone and not the network. Why are verizon people saying "of course the phone will have bugs" "oh the network is so much better". Bottom line is that we are discussing the PHONE... Not the network...

If you claim that your phone works everywhere... your an idiot. If you claim that your network is better, your an idiot...

Find a network that works for you in your area and the places you go. Then go and get a phone that you like on that network. Anyone that switches carriers to get the latest phone deserves to have their calls dropped.

How many touch screen blackberry phones are there? Lets be honest... touchscreen is not a feature... it is just a "cool" fa...(continues)

I agree, though I don't have a problem with a touch centric ui if it highlights the ADVANTAGES of such a configuration. Before the iPhone , practically none did... In most cases I think the touch screen navigation more schizophrenic and inconsistent....(continues)

After reading your review, you described that the navigation on Google Maps showed you were way off, as in miles, from your true location. When I tried to use Google maps on another Verizon Blackberry, it did the same thing. From what I can tell, it is using the triangulation method, reading your location from the cell towers, and not the GPS. For some reason, the phone is blocking Google Maps from accessing the GPS. I don't know if this is so you will pay for the Navigator service, or if there is a way to tie the GPS unit to the Google Maps software. So this isn't a bug as far as I can tell from your review. It is actually working fine in terms of finding your location through triangulation. Now the trick is to figure out how to access the ...(continues)

Verizon blocks it so you have to pay for veriz navi one of the main reason i don't go with veriz is that they nickel and dime you on these simple and free applications. I have sprint and they get phones last for the most part or phones people just don...(continues)

I would disagree with this. Unless you have fully reviewed the phone in person, this statement has no basis. I have used a dozen touch screen phones, and they all have huge delays. I would state that the Iphone has a very fast user interface reaction....(continues)

I haven't checked to update the firmware yet, and I've just now gotten time to mess with it.

The UI is slow and the touch scrolling is underwhelming. It's way more responsive than any other VZW touch screen phone (Dare, Voyager, Glyde), but even in scrolling through the main menu it is tedious and not very fun.

The UI also looks good in pictures but it's herky-jerky in person. The In-store display was just as bad, but I'd figured it had too many processes running or had a memory leak. NOPE.

My biggest gripe with the UI is though it is a solid UI with the thumb wheel or trackball, it is garbage with a touch screen. Anyone who has gotten a good case of Blackberry thumb is going to hate having to mov...(continues)

if it makes you feel better RIM has stated a free over the air software upgrade for the storm is due out in a week or two. it is supposed to address nearly all issues with speed/delay/performance of the OS.

I stopped by my local VZW store this afternoon and tried out the demos they had available. They were all buggy. The accelerometer did not respond well, and in fact, one of the two demos wouldn't even show the web in portrait mode...only landscape. The OS was very slow and at times the virtual keyboard would not go away once it was activated. Things were getting so bad that I even shut down and restarted both of the demo units to see if that would help. I just couldn't believe that they would display two units that performed so badly on opening day.

I have read practically every review from all of the major websites, as well as many of the minor sites too (this one, phonearena, engadget, pcmag, crackberry, etc.) and some have said tha...(continues)

I've got mine here and it's pretty bad. At first I thought the in-store demo was just slow (hell, I remember the iPhone demos on launch day crashing left and right) , but it's just as bad. While composing an SMS mine just hung for about 10 seconds. ...(continues)